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Saturday 26 March saw Prosperous Dramatic Society perform God of Carnage by Yasmin Reza at Newry Drama Festival. Adjudicator Brian Marjoribanks spoke of the powerful scened throughout the production and praised the two actors.
The Adjudicator praised the four actors who he said were 'top of their game'
Marjoribanks "What a challenge for any company to try, it's a black comedy quite a time with humor throughout it. Would we get it? Of course we would and we did!
"The cell calls I wondered how they would deal with that, how they'd managed to get it. I also thought it must be quite tricky during rehearsals to get that absolutely spot on. The vomiting sequence coming through, how would they tackle that? Would it be obnoxious or would it be quite humorous. I noticed that it's been premierred all over the country and I believe one was done by Ralph Fiennes and Tamsin Greig and fellow Scot, Ken Scott who actually played in it.
"So I was looking forward to seeing it, and seeing how they would tackle it, how they would overcome the problems inherrent in it. The starting point as always for me is looking at the set and I thought the set was lovely and picturesque. At the beginning with the spot on the performers at the back there, it was lovely to see. Then of course we had two large designs on either side, they were beautiful lit at the start and again at the end, with the colors coming in. I think a lot of thought went into it. I liked the set enormously and where things happened in it. I've been talking about it all week but it's been developed here in another way but I'll come back to that in a moment. Lighting wise, I thought it was lovely, I could see the faces clearly that I wanted to see. There were changes. There was one time when Alan was walking down there. I could still clearly see his face which is important. So they thought about the lighting, they thought about what they were trying to achieve with it and I thought it came over very, very well indeed. The costumes were modern, stylish and thoughtful as well. And sound wise they got every single phone call coming in absolutely on time, which was lovely to see. Also they had a hairdryer used several times so obviously they had to put a live feed I presume in the plug across here to get it, so very well done."
The Adjudicator continued "Now what did I like about the production? I liked it vocally for a start. We got voices all entirely different from one another and different pitches. We got them at different paces, the variety that I was getting throughout it was absolutely amazing to listen to.
"I have to admit to the start was quite slow and I thought after the first five minutes, oh dear, are they going to crack it, and then suddenly it picked up and I thought the humor, you responded remarkably well to it right throughout and there were many many magical moments in it.
"Now I mentioned earlier about the fact that I like the whole stage being used, and not only was the whole stage being used tonight, there were times there, you had an actor down here, with one down the far right there. one up here, one up there. They broadened out the whole vision on the stage. Other times when they were playing on top of one another, the visual variety I thought quite remarkable, what they achieved with it and what they got with it. The grouping of characters was absolutely lovely to look at, the speed at which they delivered some of the lines and some of the sequences, again lovely contrast from the slower bits when they toned it down, but above all they got the rhythm that they needed in order to convey the messages." he added.
Marjoribanks continued "There were so many instances in it. A reference, for example to Spartacus, I thought that came over remarkably well.
Speaking of the humour he added "They captured the wit and the humour of the production, it was lovely to see. The first major clash between Alan and Annette. I thought they handled that remarkably well. Then of course the vomiting scene, they got as much out of it as they possibly could without us vomiting ourselves! The hamster, the argument that they had, really fired to life.Then of course we got the John Wayne sequence, what a lovely reference it actually was and the contrast between John Wayne and Sparticus coming through, I thought that was so creative the writer putting it in.
"I loved the creation of the four characters because they were all distinct and separate and bounced off one another and I genuinely believed them right throughout the whole production, I've mentioned this in previous productions this week, it's so easy to pull a face, pull a gesture and not to really mean it. They didn't pull anything. I genuinely believed in the characters. I believed in the responses all the way out and I thought that was a delight to actually see and to watch. The husband and wife fight I thought was remarkably good and very very funny. There was someone to the left of me laughing their head off back there and I could see why he wanted to do that."
The Performers
Marjoribanks continued "Individual performances as I've mentioned, I thought each character developed quite distinctly, I was delighted to see that.
"Alan started off, like his first phone call he engaged in the character beautifully with the audience in it. It was an epic performance right throughout, which I thoroughly enjoyed, and again there was a facial response to the cigar and being offered it. You would have thought again it would have been cliched with that - It didn't. I genuinely believed he wanted to take that cigar and go on with smoking it, quite a thing. I thought
"Annette, the vomit scene, she handled that remarkably well, got the maximum out of it and I loved the performance individually.
"Michael lovely deep, resonant voice which balanced with the others in the production of it.
"Veronica a good start right at the beginning and then the character developed remarkably well throughout it."
Summing Up
Summing up the Adjudicator said "I thought we saw a team of four actors, I suspect playing at the top of their game, and extremely well directed and I thought it brought the festival to a lovely conclusion. So thank you very much indeed Prosperous for a lovely entertaining evening."
